Tartan and Highland Dress lie at the center of our museum's focus.  The tradition of tartan weaving is one that is continuing and flourishing today.  Over 500 tartans are on display in our museum, and our computer database has record of over 4000 tartan designs.  Pictured at left is a replica of a 17th century weaver's cottage on display in the museum gallery.

The kilt is the central garment of Highland Dress.  Today's modern tailored kilt is the end product of a long evolution, beginning in the sixteenth century with the belted plaide (shown at right).  Also known in Gaelic as the feilidh-mhor (great wrap) or breacan feile (tartan wrap), this garment consisted of a double width web of woolen cloth between 4 and 6 yards in length.  It was gathered in the middle and belted at the waist, the upper part being used for cloak, camouflage, travel bag, and sleeping bag.

     The feilidh-beg, or little kilt, evolved from this garment sometime in the early 1700s.  The exact date is not known with certainty.  This early kilt was the bottom half of the belted plaid -- a 25" wide web of tartan averaging 4 yards in length.  This material was gathered into pleats or folds and belted at the waist.  It was not until the 1790s that the pleats began to be stitched in and the kilt became a tailored garment.  Two of these early kilts are on display in our gallery -- a kilt in the MacDuff tartan c. 1792 and a Locheil tartan kilt c. 1800.  Only about a dozen kilts of this antiquity still survive.

The kilt continued to evolve on into the nineteenth century.  In the early 1800s tartans began to take on specific names as commercial weaving mills such as William Wilson's & Sons of Bannockburn began to mass produce tartan material on industrial looms. 

Tartan became all the rage in the court of Queen Victoria and the kilt became fashionable far outside of the Highlands.  Clans and families adopted specific tartans for their use and the science of tartan began to solidify among much myth and romanticism.

     Many of these early clan tartans can be seen in our museum, as well as Victorian styles that continue to exist as fashionable evening wear today.

The evolution of the kilt can be easily seen from our displays.  Learn the difference between tartan and plaid, kilt and philabeg, pleating to sett and stripe.

Watch the kilt transform from a simple woolen blanket to the most tailored garment a man can own today.